By: Michael O’Farrell
Investigations Editor
THE convicted smuggler who claims he gave Seán Gallagher a €5,000 cheque for a secret Fianna Fáil fundraiser in 2008 spoke last week to the Irish Mail on Sunday – the newspaper that first raised the issue with the presidential candidate.
Armagh businessman Hugh Morgan claims that he has financial records to prove the transaction took place. He also maintains that Mr Gallagher personally telephoned him to solicit the money before calling into his office to collect the cheque. According to Mr Morgan, a thankyou letter in Mr Gallagher’s name arrived in the post shortly after the donation.
A framed photo of Mr Morgan with a jovial-looking Brian Cowen – which the businessman claims was organised by Mr Gallagher – hangs in his office just across the border in the North.
Also in the office are the financial records that prove Morgan Fuels, a substantial pan-European company with thousands of outlets, issued a €5,000 cheque to Fianna Fáil on Friday June 27, 2008 – a few days before the secret fundraising dinner took place in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk on Tuesday, July 1. The Irish Mail on Sunday first learned of the controversial donation six days ago in a tip-off.
And in an initial telephone conversation with the MoS, Mr Morgan confirmed the details of Mr Gallagher’s involvement and agreed to meet the following morning.
Details of the documents could not be published until now because Mr Morgan declined to allow his name to be made public and because the information he provided about the identity of others present at the fundraiser did not stand up to the verification process carried out by the MoS.
Furthermore he could not, after several days of searching, produce the thank-you letter from the presidential favourite.
In the initial phone conversation, Mr Morgan said he remembered receiving a call from Mr Gallagher inviting him to the dinner. ‘He phoned me, yes,’ he confirmed. ‘Gallagher asked me for €5,000.’ Mr Morgan said he remembered being brought up to the top of the hotel to attend the event.
“I think there was food. There was grub at it,’ he recalled.
‘Then Cowen gave a bit of a thing about the downturn and the economy and then we got our photograph taken with Cowen.
‘And then what do you call him delivered the photograph here – Gallagher delivered the photograph out to the yard here.’ During the call, Mr Morgan consulted his diary and, reading from it, confirmed that it contained a note of a meeting with Mr Cowen at 7pm on July 1. This, he said, confirmed he had attended the event.
Interestingly, when the MoS checked the taoiseach’s diary for evidence of the Dundalk dinner, the relevant entry had been redacted by his officials before it was made public under the Freedom of Information Act.
There was no record of the €5,000 in Fianna Fáil’s 2008 donation declarations because the amount was just below the declarable limit.
During the call, Mr Morgan also named five other businessmen who he thought had also attended the fundraiser.
But he seemed unsure of his information about those present and said he could not be 100 per cent certain whether most of them had been there.
These businessmen included Paddy McParland, a developer and hotelier who owns the Carrickdale Hotel near Dundalk, just down the road from Mr Morgan’s business headquarters. Mr McParland is a known supporter of Fianna Fáil and has previously held fundraising breakfasts for the party at his hotel.
Also said to have been present were Martin McCaughey of McCaughey Developments, a Dundalk-based property developer and known Fianna Fáil supporter, as well as Dublinbased businessman Philip Lynch. Mr Morgan also said he thought that one of the Newry brothers and developers, John or Joe Doherty, had also been present.
Joe Doherty has in the past attended a Fianna Fáil fundraising breakfast in Mr McParland’s hotel and John Doherty is an acquaintance of former justice minister Dermot Ahern.
ENDING the call, Mr Morgan agreed to meet the following day after he had searched for all the relevant documents to corroborate his account.
On Thursday morning at 10am, the MoS met Mr Morgan at the headquarters of Morgan Fuels. While waiting in his reception, the MoS could clearly hear staff being ordered to look for the 2008 cheque stubs.
Soon afterwards, in the privacy of his first-floor office, Mr Morgan again insisted that he did not want his name made public before producing his diary.
Entered into the July 1, 2008, page in the 7pm slot were the words ‘Brian Cowen’ written in black Biro.
He then produced a single photocopied sheet of paper that contained a table of cheques logged by his in-house bookkeeper on June 27, 2008. Midway down the table he pointed to an entry recording a €5,000 cheque issued to Fianna Fáil that day.
Next he produced an original bank statement from Bank of Ireland that showed a cheque – with the same number as the one logged in-house – had been cashed on July 1, the day of the Dundalk fundraiser.
Mr Morgan said he would consider releasing the documents in redacted form to protect his identity.
During the two-hour meeting that ensued, Mr Morgan spoke passionately of his love of Ireland and said he could not stand what he felt was Mr Gallagher’s duplicity in distancing himself from Fianna Fáil.
He conceded that he had been wrong to smuggle and he clearly regretted it. But he added that he believed he had paid the price while those in Fianna Fáil who were responsible for the country’s downfall would not be punished.
He agreed to consider a formal interview along these lines and once again went through his recollections of Mr Gallagher’s involvement in the Fianna Fail fundraiser.
He also asked and speculated several times about the damage the revelations would do to Seán Gallagher’s presidential campaign and which other candidates would benefit.
However, under sustained questioning he was unclear about specifics and even began to change some details.
This seems to be have been connected to a poor memory because Mr Morgan forgot even the name of the MoS and the journalist to whom he had been speaking for days.
For example, he now said it may actually have been Fianna Fáil TD Seamus Kirk who had called him with the invitation to attend the Dundalk fundraiser.
And he couldn’t remember details of the day Mr Gallagher collected the cheque or dropped off the photograph.
But Mr Morgan seemed determined to confirm his version of events and even agreed, when asked, to dismantle the photo frame of his picture with Mr Cowen to see whether the photographer’s details could be obtained.
Once again, he promised to look further for the thank-you letter he said he had received from Mr Gallagher and there was a tentative agreement to meet again the following day.
Given Mr Gallagher’s denial of ever meeting Mr Morgan, made yesterday, such a letter would have been explosive. The next day, on Friday morning last, Mr Morgan confirmed in a telephone call that he could not find the letter and that he did not wish to go public or do an interview.
So the MoS set about approaching those whom Mr Morgan had identified as probably being present at the controversial fundraiser to see if they had also been solicited to donate by Mr Gallagher.
Paddy McParland hung up when the MoS called his mobile and did not respond to a message on his phone and a letter left for him at his hotel.
When approached at his home close to Newry, Joe Doherty spoke freely and confirmed that he had not attended the event and had never met or spoken to Mr Gallagher. He did confirm attending another Fianna Fail fundraiser in Mr McParland’s hotel but was certain that he had not been present at the Crowne Plaza event.
His brother, John, also spoke freely and said that he had, through Dermot Ahern, been to other Fianna Fail events, where he once met Bertie Ahern, but that he had not been at the 2008 Dundalk dinner.
HE said that he did not know Mr Gallagher and had never been solicited by him. Philip Lynch – who was recently dismissed as chief executive of investment group One 51 – was on holiday but he confirmed in writing and by phone that he was not a Fianna Fáil supporter and had not been present.
And finally Martin McCaughey said he had been abroad at the time and had not attended the event.
He confirmed that he was a Fianna Fáil supporter but added that he had never been asked to donate to the party by Mr Gallagher.
At this point Mr Morgan was not taking calls from the MoS. So he was informed by text that these businessmen had either not been present or, in the case of Mr McParland, had refused to comment.
The newspaper again requested that he continue to look for the thank-you letter.
However, he did not respond. On Saturday morning, however, the MoS formally asked Mr Gallagher in writing to respond to the claims that Mr Morgan had made.
Mr Gallagher’s spokesman subsequently issued a one-line statement on Saturday evening.
‘This is further evidence of the ongoing smear campaign against Mr Gallagher and we will not be commenting,’ she said.
The MoS did not print Mr Morgan’s claims on Sunday since he was refusing to go public and had not given permission for his financial documentation to be revealed.
There the matter rested until Monday night’s Frontline debate during which Martin McGuinness used Mr Morgan’s assertions to launch a devastating on-air attack on Mr Gallagher.
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